Auditor General Larry Dennis yesterday backed down from questioning the legitimacy of ten events organised by faith-based tourism boss Andre Curtis.

Mr. Dennis also denied report that he was launching an investigation into the $400,000 contract awarded to Mr. Curtis by the Department of Tourism to run the initiative.

He said in the future his team would look to see if the terms of the contract were being met.

On Monday, Mr. Curtis responded to questions over his role in the initiative by announcing a list of ten events he said he had lined up for 2007-08.

Yesterday, reported Mr. Dennis as saying those events appeared to have been made up as they were not mentioned on bermudatourism.com, the website on which it is understood they are supposed to be listed.

However, Mr. Dennis said in an e-mail to Cabinet Secretary Marc Telemaque, which he later sent to this newspaper: "The quote as to the legitimacy of the faith based events is not accurate."

Yesterday's article also said Mr. Dennis was investigating Mr. Curtis' contract. reported that Mr. Dennis had asked the Department of Tourism if he could see the contract.

His comment to the reporter was: "I'm asking for the agreement to see what it's all about."

On this point, the Auditor General said in his e-mail to Mr. Telemaque: "I am not launching any probe into the Curtis contract. As such, I have not asked for the Curtis agreement, nor have I or my staff been in contact with the Acting Director of Tourism or her staff."

stands by its article. Explaining that Mr. Curtis' contract would be audited in the course of time, Mr. Dennis' e-mail continued: "As is normal audit procedure, they will be included in our normal audit testing when we audit Government grants.

At that time we would be looking to see that the request for the disbursement of public funds by a civil servant is supported by an agreement or contract, the terms of the agreement or contract are met, and proof that the grant has been used for the purpose for which it was given and has been obtained by the authorising person or Department."

The e-mail chain reveals that earlier in the day Mr. Telemaque had written to Mr. Dennis, questioning if the quotes were accurate, particularly wether he had contacted Tourism for the agreement and the quote ""if they are legitimate (the faith based events) they would already by (sic) on the Internet...".

Mr. Telemaque also wrote that he had spoken to the acting director of Tourism who denied that she and/or her staff had been contacted.